Breathing Wild
by TwiliRupee
Summary: Calamity Ganon has struck. Hyrule is hanging by a thread. Death is a common sight. The Hero, the princess' champion knight, lies on the verge of joining the dead. But, perhaps, not all is lost. After all, those Sheikah are far too clever. Spoilers for BotW.


**(Author's note: Hello, Zelda Fandom! Been a long time, right? But, oh, my goodness, Breath of the Wild is amazing. The references to all the older games! The puzzle creativity! The (surprisingly) addictive mountain climbing! (So who else climbs just to explore?) In any case, I'm enjoying the game so far. But I must warn you! There are spoilers for up until you complete the main quest at the Hetano Ancient Tech Lab place. Anything from the start of the game to that point is fair game for spoilers.**

 **With that done, I bid you to enjoy...)**

 **Breathing Wild**

"Can't…can't you do anything for him?!"

"I'm _trying_! But until the tech starts up and puts him down, he'll be— _ackh_!" Purah gasped, trying to free herself from the choking grip the bloodied, dying, young man had her in.

"Z-Zel-Zelda…" he ground out. "Bring…me…to...to her."

"I cannot!" Purah managed. She scrabbled at the knight's hand – he was strong for one so fatally wounded – and glanced at her assistant, Symin. He made to move around the table upon which the knight laid, but stopped as whatever adrenaline flooding the young man's veins disappeared. His grasp loosened. His hand fell from Purah's neck, and he lay, limp, bleeding, at death's door.

Purah stumbled back, gasping for breath. She took a moment to study the young man. Blood, seeping from the wounds, stained his clothing, along with mud and other unidentified substances, and spread across the table, dripping onto the floor. Wounds marred his handsome face and his lean frame. One gash, especially, was leaking the life-sustaining liquid at an alarming. The knight's muscles on his shoulder had been torn to a point where his bones could be seen. Of course, not at the moment, as Symin had pressed a bandage to it in a fruitless attempt to slow the bleeding.

If Purah had a weaker constitution, the sight would have made her vomit until she had nothing left in her stomach.

She shook her head, focused, and moved close to the young man. She pressed another bandage to his side, where another nasty wound was, and tried not to cry at the heartbreaking sound of the knight's weak moans of pain. He struggled briefly, then went still. Purah glanced at Symin. "You're closer. How much more until the process begins?"

Symin turned his head, glancing at a nearby control panel. "Fifty percent done. Will he make it?"

"I...I don't know."

The knight convulsed again in pain, his movements weak and sluggish. "Zelda!" he cried, tears seeping from his closed eyes to mix with the blood. Sobs wracked his body. Purah tried to calm the knight, but her attempts met with little success.

"Seventy-five percent." Symin's voice cracked in worry and sorrow.

Purah pouted in determination. "Come on, just hang on a little longer. Please!"

The knight continued to cry, to sob so hard his body shook. But as time slowly passed, his movements became weaker and weaker. His face became pale, his breathing shallow.

This time, Symin's voice was a bit more upbeat. "One-hundred percent!"

Purah felt hope rise in her chest. "Hold that there!" she ordered, grabbing one of Symin's hands and pressing it to the bandage over the wound in the knight's side. She dashed to the console, wiping her bloodied hands on her pants as she did so. "Initiating sequence." She tapped a few keys and turned to another panel. "Preparing sleep mode."

"Hurry."

Another loading sequence began. Purah hoped that this would work. This technology was unused before today. For all she knew, the knight would die, either from his wounds or from the tech that would save his life if it worked. "Engaging!" Purah slammed a button.

Blue light filled the room. The knight finally calmed. His face smoothed in slumber, his fingers uncurled from fists, his breathing, though shallow, evened out.

Symin managed to get a finger on his pulse while still holding on to the bandages. "Weak, but steady. It worked."

"Let me see." Purah moved once more to her assistant's side, this time gently removing the bandages covering the shoulder wound. Already, the bleeding had slowed, and the muscles, tendons, and ligaments were knitted together as if they were never torn.

"When does he awake?" Symin asked, hopeful.

"When he should. He will be kept in this stasis, unaging and alive, until the time is right." Purah sighed. "For now, we wait. Here, Symin, help me get these dirty clothes off him. He'll heal faster. Then we can move him to the stasis bed."

The two quickly removed the torn and stained clothing from the knight's lean yet strong frame, leaving him only in a pair of shorts. They moved the knight to a bed resting in a shallow pool. Warm healing waters began to fill the basin so that most of the knight was submerged, save for his face. His wounds had all but closed up now, though the water had turned pink from the blood.

Purah sighed and sagged onto the floor, feeling each of her years. Her wild breathing, caused by panic, sorrow, and anger, slowed. Her joints ached, but her heart ached more. Hyrule was gone. Destroyed. The only hope they had was a boy set to sleep for who knew how long.

Symin moved about, cleaning the blood from where it had collected on the table and floor. He discarded the knight's tattered clothing, and then encouraged Purah to wash herself of the blood staining her own clothing. The two cleaned up silently, glancing occasionally at the knight who slept peacefully in his basin of water.

The two Sheikah, with one last glance at the poor young man, left the room, sealing its door. They proceeded down a long passageway, and exited onto a mountain. They sealed the doorway so it looked as if it was simply part of the rocky mountain face, and turned. Smoke rose up around the castle in the distance. Guardians roamed still, terrorising and killing all opposing them. Calamity Ganon swirled about the castle. "Our poor Hyrule..." Purah said, finally letting her tears flow. "Oh, goddess, what a curse on our beautiful land."

"I know," Symin agreed. "But we cannot linger."

The two started off, glancing once more at the hidden doorway to the Shrine of Resurrection.

"Good luck, Link," Purah whispered. "Come and save us...someday..."


End file.
